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General Election Campaigning Begins in Iraq

   VOA News 12 February 2010
   Workers  install  campaign posters depicting ex-Prime Minister Ibrahim
   al-Jaafari in Baghdad, Iraq, 12 Feb 2010

Photo: AP

   Workers  install  campaign posters depicting ex-Prime Minister Ibrahim
   al-Jaafari in Baghdad, Iraq, 12 Feb 2010

   Campaigning  has  officially  begun in Iraq for the country's upcoming
   March 7 general election.
   The  first  official  campaign  posters  were plastered across Baghdad
   Friday.
   Campaigning  opened amid simmering tensions over the decision to ban a
   number  of  Sunni  Muslim  candidates  because of alleged ties to late
   Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party.
   Iraq's  Shi'ite-led  government  has  tried to purge former Ba'athists
   from top positions.  Analysts say the effort could re-ignite sectarian
   tensions  between  majority  Shi'ite Muslims and Sunnis, who dominated
   Iraq under Saddam.
   As  campaigning  began, the U.S. military said five people were killed
   during  a  joint  raid with Iraqi forces in a village near the Iranian
   border.   It  said  those  killed  were  suspected  militants,  but  a
   provincial   council  member  told  the  Associated  Press  they  were
   civilians.  No further information was immediately available.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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